Search - Jimmy Smith :: Live at the Village Gate (Reis) (Rstr)

Among the best live albums from Jimmy Smith

Terje Biringvad | Oslo, Norway | 04/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The "Live at the Village Gate" album had all the Verve trademarks for another successful release by Jimmy Smith when it hit the streets on May 31 1963 - the immense popular Jimmy Smith trio in live performance for the first time on the Verve label supported by the successful producer Creed Taylor. But of unknown reasons, "Live at the Village Gate" was released on the MGM Metro label, the owner of the Verve subsidiary label, more known for its low cost production, price cut LP's. "Live at the Village Gate" became the lesser known LP from Jimmy Smith and a hard-to-find album among collectors since it was never re-released again in its original package by Verve, not even in Japan.



But don't be fooled by the original crappy cover design, because the "Live at the Village Gate" album is a remarkable quality live performance by the Jimmy Smith trio, not in the sense of the choice of melodies being played, but how Jimmy Smith stretches out on the Hammond B-3 organ through four lengthy tunes. He plays far more aggressive and soulful (like the live Blue Note albums) than at- the-time polished Verve label studio recordings, allows himself more space with fierce grooves and solos that keeps drummer Billy Hart and guitarist Quentin Warren busy keeping up with the tempi. When the trio kicks off with the Ray Charles hit "I Got a Woman", Jimmy Smith literally tears the melody apart with long complex improvised lines that turns the whole show into an amazing "block chord & full organ" final you never heard before! The trio now calms down with a joyous version of the too little played standard tune "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey". The up-tempo Dizzy Gillespie composition "The Champ", gets another treat from Jimmy Smith when playing some breathtaking "avant gard'ish block chords rolls with excellent support from Quentin Warren's elegant guitar chords and single lines. The all too short concert with no additional tracks included, closes off with a great up beat interpretation of the beautiful ballad "If I Were a Bell". The mastering of the original tape to CD is done excellently by the Universal engineers and the recording also justifies Hammond B-3 sound to its full extent. It's always hard to rank an album, but my personal verdict is that "Live at the Village Gate" is among the 5 best organ-guitar-drums live albums ever recorded by Jimmy Smith. My LP can now rest in peace.........



To all Jimmy Smith fans - we just need to pray to the Verve folks that they will do another vault search and reissue the great "lost" trio album on the Metro label - "Live in Hamburg "(1965).

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